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Being an issuer

What is an Issuer?

An issuer is someone or a company that creates transaction credentials. Some common examples of Issuers today are:

Banks,

Financial institutions,

Merchants that offer gift cards or stored value cards,

Phone card companies,

Transit authorities,

Hotels that provide room keys,

Theme parks,

Office building security.

Theses are just a few types of companies that offer transaction credentials.

What can Issuers do with SimplyTapp?

A SimplyTapp "issuer" can:

Create traditional payment and transaction credentials under single or multiple brands,

Create proprietary credentials under single or multiple brands,

Manage the credential life-cycle process from creation to expiration.

What must each credential brand contain on day one?

Because on day one each credential brand is intended to represent the plastic cards we have today they will require four specific elements:

A card logo

A brand name

An active javacard applet .jar

An active card agent .jar

In addition, each card instance can be personalized and managed using Global Platform management utilities.

Who does an Issuing Entity Distribute Credentials Too?

An issuing entity can distribute their credentials to any mobile application that has been approved and has been developed using the SimplyTapp Mobile SDK.

Note: A current limitation is that the Mobile Application and Issuing Entity must be the same developer.

Authentication

SimplyTapp authentication is driven by OAuth 1.0a, and in this case the issuer is a consumer of user information that relates to a mobile application. So, in the case a card credential instance is created through the OAuth process, the issuer will ultimately receive an access token and token secret for each card credential instance that is issued to a user.

This access token and token secret can be used to manage the issued card credential throughout its lifecycle. Utilities like STBridge are great tools for this credential management because they use Global Platform functionality.

Step 2 - Create an Issuing Entity. Here you will need to pick a name and logo for your issuing entity. After you have done this and clicked the submit button, your Developer Account page will show an Issuer tab in the left side toolbar.

(The name and logo are important for identifying your application to the user during the OAuth authorization process.)

Step 3 - Assigning the Issuing Entity with the URL Callback - To load the issuing entity with the URL you will need to (1) Click on the issuer tab from within toolbar of your developer profile page. (2) Expand your new issuing entity profile. (click the triangle on the right of it)(3) Populate the callback field with the URL that OAuth should redirect the user to after they are authorized to add the identified new card credential instance to the mobile application. i.e.: